Docetaxel, 1,7β,10β-trihydroxy-9-oxo-5β,20-epoxytax-11-ene-2α,4,13α-triyl 4-acetate 2-benzoate 13-{(2R,3S)-3-[(tert-butoxycarbonyl)amino]-2-hydroxy-3-phenylpropanoate}, the compound according to Formula I, is a drug used in cancer chemotherapy.

Docetaxel (as generic or under the trade name Taxotere) is a clinically well-established anti-mitotic chemotherapy medication (that is, it interferes with cell division). It is used mainly for the treatment of breast, ovarian, prostate, and non-small cell lung cancer. The main use of docetaxel is the treatment of a variety of cancers after the failure of anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Docetaxel binds to microtubules reversibly with high affinity and has a maximum stoichiometry of 1 mole docetaxel per mole tubulin in microtubules. This binding stabilizes microtubules and prevents depolymerisation from calcium ions, decreased temperature and dilution, preferentially at the plus end of the microtubule. Docetaxel has been found to accumulate to higher concentration in ovarian adenocarcinoma cells than kidney carcinoma cells, which may contribute to the more effective treatment of ovarian cancer by docetaxel. It has also been found to lead to the phosphorylation of oncoprotein bcl-2, which is apoptosis-blocking in its oncoprotein form.
Docetaxel is a cell cycle specific agent, it is cytotoxic to all dividing cells in the body. This includes tumour cells as well as hair follicles, bone marrow and other germ cells. For this reason, common chemotherapy side effects such as alopecia occur; along with certain haematological adverse effects which include Neutropenia and Anaemia in most of the cases, further usual adverse effects of Febrile neutropenia and Thrombocytopenia.